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Summary of the impact

The Enchanted Palace was a collaborative project between theatre
company WildWorks and Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). It transformed the
State Apartments at Kensington Palace into an interactive exhibition (26
March 2010 — 1 June 2012) which brought the stories and the palace to
life.

The Enchanted Palace enabled Kensington Palace to remain open
during a two-year £12 million refurbishment. The project brought in
income, safeguarded jobs and drew in new audiences. Thirteen community
groups, schools and colleges were involved in its creation while 10
high-profile designers were invited to create work in response to the
stories of the palace. The Enchanted Palace increased the numbers of
Palace visitors (even during this refurbishment period) and was widely
covered in the press featuring on the International Council of Museums
website www.clothestellstories.com
as an example of good practice.

Underpinning research

WildWorks [1] is an internationally renowned multi-disciplinary theatre
and visual arts company founded in 2005. Mercedes Kemp (Senior Lecturer,
Falmouth) is a core artistic member and Associate Director, Community and
Research. Kemp has worked developed storylines and text for site-specific
pieces across Europe. Her research is at the boundaries of participative
and professional practice. Wildworks have produced several celebrated
large-scale public projects, involving European communities. Two projects
contemporary with the Enchanted Palace are `The Passion' [1b] and `Babel'
[1c].

The Passion, Port Talbot, Wales (2011, National Theatre Wales with
Michael Sheen), involved 1200+ members of the Port Talbot community.
People took part as writers, musicians, singers, actors, makers and
stewards over a three-day non-stop celebration from afternoon of Good
Friday to Sunday evening. During a six month preparation and devising
period, the team worked in the streets, malls and social clubs of Port
Talbot to engage members of the community in finding stories, memories,
images and locations for the story of The Passion.

Babel brought together the community engagement teams of 5 organisations:
Wildworks, Battersea Arts Centre,The Lyric Hammersmith, Theatre Royal
Stratford East and Young Vic. Babel was created as a celebration of the
diversity of London in terms of language, culture, ethnicity, identity and
the wider idea of communication beyond language. 600+ participants from
across 23 Boroughs created 12 performances for audiences totalling 9000+.
Participation was intergenerational with people from every age bracket in
the census. 224 members took part in the final performance run.

WildWorks aims to balance high production values with a commitment to
community engagement. Kemp's role within WildWorks involves working with
host communities, exploring their relationships with place and memory and
adapting text to fit each new location. Her method involves eclectic
ethnographic research using a variety of sources: archives, artefacts,
local historians, old photographs and conversations. Observing process of
memory and its effect on the value that people place on their environments
is key.

The initial research period explored ideas with staff at the palace,
including curators, conservators and warders. Although they all approached
the project from different perspectives, what united them was their
passion for Kensington Palace and its stories, artefacts and significance.

HRP initially suggested using fairy stories as a framework for The
Enchanted Palace, but WildWorks were keen for the project to be
based around real stories of the palace: the real stories were as
intriguing and compelling as any fairy tale. Because the noise of the
building work would be heard, it made sense to weave this into the story.
The idea was that the vibration and disturbance were shaking the stories
out of the wall of the palace with the dust, and that they were somehow
running free in the State Apartments [2].

The stories of seven princesses who lived in Kensington Palace were
chosen as a focal point for the project, a way of presenting the historic
site through an emotive narrative. They included those of Diana, Princess
of Wales and Queen Victoria. While the stories spanned four centuries, the
themes explored universal human experiences, such as the desire for love,
rebellion, lonely childhoods and the pain of losing a child which would
resonate with contemporary audiences.

Kemp was the principle writer for The Enchanted Palace. She
started writing poems for each princess [3], using the narrative of their
lives and translating them into more mythic terms. These story-poems are
at the core of The Enchanted Palace guide book [4] and became a
focal point for the collaboration of artists, designers, curators,
conservators, performers, community groups, educational partnerships and
warders working on the project. The poems were translated into seven
languages and included in storybooks accompanying the installations.

[2] John Barnes and Joanna Marschner, `The Enchanted Palace. How Building
Work Shook the Stories from the Fabric of Kensington Palace, London', in
Werner van Hoof (ed) Catching the Spirit. Theatrical Assets of Historic
Houses and their Approaches in Reinventing the Past. Proceedings of the
ICOM/DEMHIST international conference, Antwerp, 17-20 October, 2011. pp.
83-85

Details of the impact

Audience development
The palace building work offered a unique opportunity for Kensington
Palace to experiment with different ways for visitors to explore and
interact with the palace, its stories and treasures [1]. After the
extensive refurbishment, the palace would re-open in 2012 as `A palace for
everyone', so the opportunity to develop Kensington Palace's visitor
demographic prior to the re-opening was an important part of the project.

The core audience of Kensington Palace was previously made up of
`traditional' visitors who have a general interest in historic buildings.
The majority of this group were mostly international, `once in a lifetime'
visitors. People whose interest in the palace due to its association with
Princess Diana made up another key audience segment, while families and
young, urban Londoners were underrepresented [3].

The Enchanted Palace had a considerable impact on the visitor
demographic. It attracted a much wider audience than usual with a 20% rise
in London-based visitors and 17% rise in visitors aged 25-34 [2]. More
people were visiting Kensington Palace than ever before: in the first year
of The Enchanted Palace visitor numbers were up 22% on the
previous year at their peak [3].

The Enchanted Palace was an immersive experience, very different
from a standard museum visit. This provoked some extreme reactions from
visitors. As well as filling the palace's visitor book, many comments were
posted online on TripAdvisor and Mumsnet [6].

While many people loved The Enchanted Palace, a minority hated
it. This strength of feeling (both positive and negative) was something
that Kensington Palace had never encountered before [3].

The exhibition was widely covered in the press [4], including national
newspapers, prestigious fashion-focused magazines such as Vogue, trendy
urban publications Time Out and Wallpaper as well as by influential
bloggers. It was also well-received by the museum sector and featured on
the International Council of Museums website: Clothes Tell Stories [5] as
well as cited in several peer- reviewed journals [9]. The Enchanted
Palace won the Editor's Award for Innovation and Tourism at the 2010
Group Travel Awards [8].

As part of project, Kensington Palace tried out late-night opening for
the first time, with four Enchanted Evening attracting on average
400 visitors. Nearly 700 people attended `Peter the Wild Boy's Ball', the
last in the series of evening events. Following the success of these
events, Kensington Palace has run further evening events, including `Eerie
evening tours'.

Community
Community involvement was a key part of the project. Drawing on WildWorks'
and specifically, Mercedes Kemp's previous work with communities in
unusual settings, the project brought a diverse group of people together,
both from within the palace and the local area. Thirteen educational and
community partners were involved in creating artwork and exhibits for The
Enchanted Palace: Acton and West London College, Central St Martin's
College of Art, Chelsea Methodists, Fox Primary School, Harpley Pupil
Referral Unit, Into University, Locksley and St Dunstan's Sewing Group,
North Kensington Jigsaw Club Positive Age, Pimento Supplementary School,
the Prince's Drawing School, Queens Park Children's Sewing Centre,
Stitches in Time and Wimbledon College of Art.

Many of the people involved had never visited Kensington Palace before,
or would have even thought of visiting, yet made a strong emotional
connection with the stories connected to the palace:

"Visiting Kensington Palace taught me that even princesses had sad
lives too. I didn't realise they had to be married off, or leave their
country, family and precious possessions behind, just like us. I felt
important and proud seeing my embroidery displayed in the palace."
Fathima Begum from Dora Hall Sewing Group. [2]

The Enchanted Palace has also had lasting impact on HRP, in
particular how it trains its staff and manages projects [7].